“Peter Green was famous for his out-of-phase guitar pickups ...”
And this was due to a manufacturing defect - back in those days Gibson guitars were mostly hand-built and among 1950’s and early ‘60’s Gibsons it is really difficult to find two that are exactly alike. Small differences usually, such as a few extra turns of wire on the pickup coils, or as was the case with Peter Green’s Les Paul, pickups wired out of phase.
Also, Green sold this particular guitar and it was eventually bought by Gary Moore.
Being a drummer and playing basic chords (majors, minors, flats, 7ths, etc) on guitar, I don’t know what “out of phase means”. You’d think I’d know since I owned a pre-CBS Fender Strat. To lazy to learn, I guess. When you have a top line Roland electronic drum kit, you know where you want to be. Plus, I sang while playing drums like Don Henley - not as well :(. Cool set up. Had it plugged into my sound system/mixer and go either headset or speakers, depending how much I wanted to bother the wife and neighbors...haha.
I discovered that soldering the ground or hot wire from either pickup, in reverse, allows for the Peter Green tone when the 3 way selector switch is in the middle position. I do it on most of my guitars.
“Also, Green sold this particular guitar and it was eventually bought by Gary Moore.”
Slight correction - Green sold this guitar TO Gary Moore. And some additional info. Green’s Les Paul is now owned by Kirk Hammett, who bought it in 2016.